part of the point of the short-term debt ceiling extension just passed last week was sort of to try and leverage their position in the sequester-related discussion of $1.2 trillion of autoic spending cuts set to kick in on march 1st which are delayed two months with the fiscal cliff deal. they're hoping to extract spending cuts from president obama. if not that fight, then in the next debt ceiling fight the next debt ceiling fight. the demand nor spending cuts isn't going to go anywhere. >> bill: barney frank, he would be fired up, ready to go. he knows she is issues. he knows the fiscal issues better than anybody else. >> deval patrick said he would be happy to have him. he didn't endorse it per se but he expressed sort of opens to the idea. >> wouldn't be a big learning curve for barney. >> bill: no, not at all. i think it would be very tough for governor patrick not to appoint him. i mean who else could step in and have all of the information and all of the experience you need to really fight for the people. >> i was going to say -- >> bill: now, of course, so is it is sort of a reli